The Psychology of Management Part 24

FEAR TRANSFORMED UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--Under Scientific Management the worker may still fear that he will incur a penalty, or fail to deserve a reward, but the honest, industrious worker experiences no such horror as the old-time fear included. This is removed by his knowledge

1. that his task is achievable.

2. that his work will not injure his health.

3. that he may be sure of advancement with age and experience.

4. that he is sure of the "square deal."

Thus such fear as he has, has a good and not an evil effect upon him. It is an incentive to cooperate willingly. Its immediate and ultimate effects are advantageous.

LOVE, OR LOYALTY, FOSTERED BY SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--The worker's knowledge that the management plans to maintain such conditions as will enable him to have the four a.s.surances enumerated above leads to love, or loyalty, between workers and employers.[51]

Far from Scientific Management abolishing the old personal and sympathetic relations between employers and workers, it gives opportunities for such relations as have not existed since the days of the guilds, and the old apprenticeship.[52]

The cooperation upon which Scientific Management rests does away with the traditional "warfare" between employer and workers that made permanent friendliness almost impossible. Cooperation induces friendliness and loyalty of each member in the organization to all the others.

Mr. Wilfred Lewis says, in describing the installation of Scientific Management in his plant, "We had, in effect, been installing at great expense a new and wonderful means for increasing the efficiency of labor, in the benefits of which the workman himself shared, and we have today an organization second, I believe, to none in its loyalty, efficiency and steadfastness of purpose."[53] This same loyalty of the workers is plain in an article in _Industrial Engineering_, on "Scientific Management as Viewed from the Workman's Standpoint," where various men in a shop having Scientific Management were interviewed.[54] After quoting various workers' opinions of Scientific Management and their own particular shop, the writer says: "Conversations with other men brought out practically the same facts. They are all contented. They took pride in their work, and seemed to be especially proud of the fact that they were employed in the Link-Belt shops."[55]

TEACHING UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT DEVELOPS SUCH LOYALTY.--The manner of teaching under Scientific Management fosters such loyalty.

Only through friendly aid can both teacher and taught prosper. Also, the perfection of the actual workings of this plan of management inspires regard as well as respect for the employer.

VALUE OF PERSONALITY NOT ELIMINATED.--It is a great mistake to think that Scientific Management underestimates the value of personality.[56] Rather, Scientific Management enhances the value of an admirable personality. This is well exemplified in the Link-Belt Co.,[57] and in the Tabor Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia, as well as on other work where Scientific Management has been installed a period of several years.

CURIOSITY AROUSED BY SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--Scientific Management arouses the curiosity of the worker, by showing, through its teaching, glimpses of the possibilities that exist for further scientific investigation. The insistence on standard methods of less waste arouses a curiosity as to whether still less wasteful methods cannot be found.

CURIOSITY UTILIZED BY SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--This curiosity is very useful as a trait of the learner, the planner and the investigator. It can be well utilized by the teacher who recognizes it in the learner, by an adaptation of methods of interpreting the instruction card, that will allow of partially satisfying, and at the same time further exciting, the curiosity.

In selecting men for higher positions, and for special work, curiosity as to the work, with the interest that is its result, may serve as an admirable indication of one sort of fitness. This curiosity, or general interest, is usually a.s.sociated with a personal interest that makes it more intense, and more easy to utilize.

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT PLACES A HIGH VALUE ON IMITATION.--It was a popular custom of the past to look down with scorn on the individual or organization that imitated others. Scientific Management believes that to imitate with great precision the best, is a work of high intelligence and industrial efficiency.

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT USES BOTH SPONTANEOUS AND DELIBERATE IMITATION.--Teaching under Scientific Management induces both spontaneous and deliberate imitation. The standardization prevalent, and the conformity to standards exacted, provide that this imitation shall follow directed lines.

SPONTANEOUS IMITATION UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT HAS VALUABLE RESULTS.--Under Scientific Management, the worker will spontaneously imitate the teacher, when the latter has been demonstrating. This leads to desired results. So, also, the worker imitates, more or less spontaneously, his own past methods of doing work. The right habits early formed by Scientific Management insure that the results of such imitation shall be profitable.

DELIBERATE IMITATION CONSTANTLY ENCOURAGED.--Deliberate imitation is caused more than anything else by the fact that the man knows, if he does the thing in the way directed, his pay will be increased.

Such imitation is also encouraged by the fact that the worker is made to believe that he is capable, and has the will to overcome obstacles. He knows that the management believes he can do the work, or the instruction card would not have been issued to him. Moreover, he sees that the teacher and demonstrator is a man promoted from his rank, and he is convinced, therefore, that what the teacher can do he also can do.[58]

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT PROVIDES STANDARDS FOR IMITATION.--It is of immense value in obtaining valuable results from imitation, that Scientific Management provides standards. Under Traditional Management, it was almost impossible for a worker to decide which man he should imitate. Even though he might come to determine, by constant observation, after a time, which man he desired to imitate, he would not know in how far he would do well to copy any particular method. Recording individually measured output under Transitory Management allows of determining the man of high score, and either using him as a model, or formulating his method into rules. Under Scientific Management, the instruction card furnishes a method which the worker knows that he can imitate exactly, with predetermined results.

IMITATION IS EXPECTED OF ALL.--As standardization applies to the work of all, so imitation of standards is expected of all. This fact the teacher under Scientific Management can use to advantage, as an added incentive to imitation. Any dislike of imitation is further decreased, by making clear to every worker that those who are under him are expected to imitate him,--and that he must, himself, imitate his teachers, in order to set a worthy example.

IMITATION LEADS TO EMULATION.--Imitation, as provided for by teaching under Scientific Management, and admiration for the skillful teacher, or the standard imitated, naturally stimulate emulation. This emulation takes three forms:

1. Compet.i.tion with the records of others.

2. Compet.i.tion with one's own record.

3. Compet.i.tion with the standard record.

NO HARD FEELING AROUSED.--In the first sort of compet.i.tion only is there a possibility of hard feeling being aroused, but danger of this is practically eliminated by the fact that rewards are provided for all who are successful. In the second sort of compet.i.tion, the worker, by matching himself against what he has done, measures his own increased efficiency. In the third sort of compet.i.tion, there is the added stimulus of surprising the management by exceeding the task expected. The incentive in all three cases is not only more pay and a chance for promotion, but also the opportunity to win appreciation and publicity for successful performance.

AMBITION IS AROUSED.--The outcome of emulation is ambition. This ambition is stimulated by the fact that promotion is so rapid, and so outlined before the worker, that he sees the chance for advancement himself, and not only advancement that means more pay, but advancement also that means a chance to specialize on that work which he particularly likes.

PUGNACITY UTILIZED.--Pugnacity can never be entirely absent where there is emulation. Under Scientific Management it is used to overcome not persons, but things. Pugnacity is a great driving force. It is a wonderful thing that under Scientific Management this force is aroused not against one's fellow-workers, but against one's work. The desire to win out, to fight it out, is aroused against a large task, which the man desires to put behind him. Moreover, there is nothing under Scientific Management which forbids an athletic contest. While the workers would not, under the ultimate form, be allowed to injure themselves by overspeeding, a friendly race with a demonstration of pugnacity which harms no one is not frowned upon.

PRIDE IS STIMULATED.--Pride in one's work is aroused as soon as work is functionalized. The moment a man has something to do that he likes to do, and can do well, he takes pride in it. So, also, the fact that individuality, and personality, are recognized, and that his records are shown, makes pride serve as a stimulus. The outcome of the worker's pride in his work is pride in himself. He finds that he is part of a great whole, and he learns to take pride in the entire management,--in both himself and the managers, as well as in his own work.

FEELING OF OWNERSHIP PROVIDED FOR.--It may seem at first glance that the instinct of ownership is neglected, and becomes stunted, under Scientific Management, in that all tools become more or less standardized, and the man is discouraged from having tools peculiar in shape, or size, for whose use he has no warrant except long time of use.

Careful consideration shows that Scientific Management provides two opportunities for the worker to conserve his instinct for ownership,--

1. During working hours, where the recognition of his personality allows the worker to identify himself with his work, and where his cooperation with the management makes him identified with its activities.

2. Outside the work. He has, under Scientific Management, more hours away from work to enjoy ownership, and more money with which to acquire those things that he desires to own.

The teacher must make clear to him both these opportunities, as he readily can, since the instinct of ownership is conserved in him in an identical manner.

CONSTRUCTIVENESS A PART OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--Every act that the worker performs is constructive, because waste has been eliminated, and everything that is done is upbuilding. Teaching makes this clear to the worker. Constructiveness is also utilized in that exercise of initiative is provided for. Thus the instinct, instead of being weakened, is strengthened and directed.

PROGRESS IN UTILIZING INSTINCTS DEMANDS PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY.--Teaching under Scientific Management can never hope fully to understand and utilize native reactions, until more a.s.sistance has been given by psychology. At the present time, Scientific Management labors under disadvantages that must, ultimately, be removed.

Psychologists must, by experiments, determine more accurately the reactions and their controlability. More thorough study must be made of children that Scientific Management may understand more of the nature of the reactions of the young workers who come for industrial training. Psychology must give its help in this training. Then only, can teaching under Scientific Management become truly efficient.

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT REALIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING THE WILL.--The most necessary, and most complex and difficult part of Scientific Management, is the training of the will of all members of the organization. Prof. Read states in his "Psychology" five means of training or influencing the will. These are[59]

"1. The first important feature in training the will is the help furnished by supplying the mind with a useful body of ideas.

"2. The second great feature of the training of the will is the building up in the mind of the proper interests, and the habit of giving the attention to useful and worthy purposes.

"3. Another important feature of the training of the will is the establishing of a firm a.s.sociation between ideas and actions, or, in other words, the forming of a good set of habits.

"4. Another very important feature of the training of the will has reference to its strength of purpose or power of imitation.

"5. The matter of discipline."

Teaching under Scientific Management does supply these five functions, and thus provide for the strengthening and development of the will.

VARIATIONS IN TEACHING OF APPRENTICES AND JOURNEYMEN.--Scientific Management must not only be prepared to teach apprentices, as must all types of management, it must also teach journeymen who have not acquired standard methods.

APPRENTICES ARE EASILY HANDLED.--Teaching apprentices is a comparatively simple proposition, far simpler than under any other type of management. Standard methods enable the apprentice to become proficient long before his brother could, under the old type of teaching. The length of training required depends largely on how fingerwise the apprentice is.

OLDER WORKERS MUST BE HANDLED WITH TACT.--With adult workers, the problem is not so simple. Old wrong habits, such as the use of ineffective motions, must be eliminated. Physically, it is difficult for the adult worker to alter his methods. Moreover, it may be most difficult to change his mental att.i.tude, to convince him that the methods of Scientific Management are correct.

A successful worker under Traditional Management, who is proud of his work, will often be extremely sensitive to what he is p.r.o.ne to regard as the "criticism" of Scientific Management with regard to him.

APPRECIATION OF VARYING VIEWPOINTS NECESSARY.--No management can consider itself adequate that does not try to enter into the mental att.i.tude of its workers. Actual practice shows that, with time and tact, almost any worker can be convinced that all criticism of him is constructive, and that for him to conform to the new standards is a mark of added proficiency, not an acknowledgment of ill-preparedness.

The "Systems" do much toward this work of reconciling the older workers to the new methods, but most of all can be done by such teachers as can demonstrate their own change from old to standard methods, and the consequent promotion and success. This is, again, an opportunity for the exercise of personality.

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT PROVIDES PLACES FOR SUCH TEACHING.--Under the methods of teaching employed by Scientific Management,--right motions first, next speed, with quality as a resultant product,--it is most necessary to provide a place where learners can work. The standard planning of quality provides such a place. The plus and minus signs automatically divide labor so that the worker can be taught by degrees, being set at first where great accuracy is not demanded by the work, and being shifted to work requiring more accuracy as he becomes more proficient. In this way even the most untrained worker becomes efficient, and is engaged in actual productive work.

MEASUREMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING.--Under Scientific Management the results of teaching and learning become apparent automatically in records of output. The learner's record of output of proper prescribed quality determines what pay he shall receive, and also has a proportionate effect on the teacher's pay. Such a system of measurement may not be accurate as a report of the learner's gain,--for he doubtless gains mental results that cannot be seen in his output,--but it certainly does serve as an incentive to teaching and to learning.

RELATION OF TEACHING IN SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT TO ACADEMIC TRAINING AND VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.[60]--Teaching under Scientific Management can never be most efficient until the field of such teaching is restricted to training learners who are properly prepared to receive industrial training.[61] This preparedness implies fitting school and academic training, and Vocational Guidance.

LEARNER SHOULD BE MANUALLY ADEPT.--The learner should, before entering the industrial world, be taught to be manually adept, or fingerwise, to have such control over his trained muscles that they will respond quickly and accurately to orders. Such training should be started in infancy,[62] in the form of guided play, as, for example, whittling, sewing, knitting, handling mechanical toys and tools, and playing musical instruments, and continued up to, and into, the period of entering a trade.